April 3, 2010.

Yesterday I had to make a couple of repairs to the foot of our mainsail. The clew of our mainsail is attached to a slug in the boom via a piece of webbing. Unfortunately, I think that the sun finally degraded the webbing so much that it failed. When the webbing broke it allowed the power in the sail to be transferred to the plastic slugs which attach the foot of the sail to the boom. That increased pressure resulted in a pair of broken plastic slugs.

I had a piece of webbing so I replaced the old one by sewing the new one into place. Now that the clew attachment was as good as new I needed to replace the 2 broken sail slugs. Unfortunately, the sail slugs are not in our spare parts inventory so I had to improvise. What I came up with was bending a pair of Bahamanian dimes at right angles. They’re quite large and when put back to back with a third dime in between they were exactly the right thickness. Some drilled holes, a pop rivet and we were back in business. Besides, whens the last time anything on the boat only cost you thirty cents?

After that we headed over to Solitaire for a bit of pre-gaming before heading into town for the big Homecoming celebration. There were more than a thousand people already in town milling about when we arrived at dusk. We bought some food from a couple of the local vendors. Then I waited so long in the beer line that once I finally reached the front I bought several and filled my pockets with them so I wouldn’t have to get back in line for a while. With the food and beverages squared away we found a spot down front and settled in to watch the evenings entertainment. There was a DJ playing just about everything. Who knew there was an island rap version of the electric slide?

There was a youth fashion show put on by the local talent agency followed by 2 live bands. There was some lunatic prancing through the crowd tossing candy and dollar bills up in the air. He drove the kids crazy as he wove through the crowd. Kinda like the Pied Piper of Mayhem. There was also a young girl from the area that performed a couple of songs for the crowd. She was a girl of about 14 and when the music started I found myself expecting a pleasant ballad. When I flipped on my Bahamanian to English translator I realized that the chorus of the song was “I’ll bust the windows out your car”. Ah, young love.

And then we danced…..for hours. Dr. Bob on Savage Son danced to the point where he was practically lame when he awoke this morning. Physician heal thyself. There may have been excessive dancing. After the beers in my pockets were gone I was fed more by well meaning friends. When I awoke this morning I was just happy that my head still fit through the companionway. It was a grand evening which is obviously the reason we didn’t get home until after 0100. Which by the way, is the latest we have been out and about in years!

The guy on the left in the photo is Rick from C Language. He and I are about the best of all the spear fishing cruisers that I’ve met. The guy in the middle of this picture is our friend Norm. Norm makes me feel like a beginner. Norm is a very pleasant unassuming guy that you would never bet a nickel on in a foot race. But give him a spear and a pair of flippers and he becomes a serial killer par excellence. In 10 minutes he can grid search a hundred square yards and kill every Lobster, Grouper and Hogfish in the area. I consider the three of us to be the most capable old white guys with spears in the Bahamas.

I wonder if the Bahamanians were aware that 3 such dangerous individuals were going to be in the area or if they always patrol Homecoming with Uzi’s draped around their necks.

April 1, 2010.

There’s a pair of small French Canadian boats that we’ve been hop scotching along with for several islands. Usually the French Canadians are a little aloof to say the least. The largest of the 2 boats is only a 32 footer. Its not that 32 feet is to small it’s the fact that one boat has 3 kids while the other has 2 children aboard.

So it’s no surprise that they let the kids play in the rigging. The boys on this boat have the bosuns chair attached to the main halyard and then they swing all over the boat depending on how high the halyard has been raised.

It looks like a hell of a good time to me. I’d actually like to give it a try if I were a few years younger. So we’ve been amused by watching the French Canadian Spider Monkey Boys for a while now. Until today that is……..

The middle son is 5 years old and while running down the side of the boat as in the video he caught his toe in a deck fitting and practically tore it off.

Dr. Bob on Savage Son and I headed over to see if there was something we could do to help. The kids toe was a mess. It had been practically torn off. The bone was severed and the toe was hanging by a strap of flesh. There was blood everywhere, he was crying, both his brothers and mother were in near hysterics and they were all blabbering away in their native tongue.

This boat is a 28 footer. Dr. Bob and I are not small people. Add us to the 5 people already onboard and things were more than a little cramped. There was nothing I could do so I was feeling like a bit of a fool for being there, actually an April Fool……

March 31, 2010.

Today was the last day of this years lobster season. As a result we just HAD to get into the water in an effort to boat a few more bugs. The dinghy ride to the closest coral heads was close to 4 miles.

The coral heads were extremely small and several hundred yards apart. So it was; race up, hop in, look for a bit and back in the dink and on to the next head. We ended up taking 3 smallish bugs.
We saw and left behind 20 or more that were just too small to be taken. What we did find however were 5 very large Coral Crabs. I speared them and gladly took them home for a crab claw festival on the Veranda.

The people of the Bahamas are a lot more religious than I had imagined. Easter here is HUGE and not just because of a mythical furry creature leaving baskets of chocolate at your door. Most of the islands don’t have schooling past 8th grade available. If your child is going to high school then they’re going to be sent up the island chain to either Nassau or Eleuthera. So the Easter break becomes very important.

The Easter break is generally known as Homecoming Week. Kids come home from school; young adults that have stayed away after attending school also use this opportunity to come back to their home island. Even adults make the pilgrimage back home to see their people. So this week is like a huge family reunion which of course means party.

There’s a section of the main drag through Rock Sound that’s been lined with food booths, a stage and an incredible sound system. There has been ridiculously loud music and carrying on since Wednesday. Friday night is going to be the height of the party. It’s definitely the place to be so we slept in so we can stay up late this evening and attend.



Yesterday we
walked through the festival on the way to explore a local series of caves. The bass from the speakers is strong enough to make your clothes flap. Out on the boat it’s just incredible. We have to shut down our stereo system and listen to the music from shore as we can’t compete with the volume that they send out to us over 300 yards away. When I say the music is loud I can’t begin to relate just how loud it is. I took this video from the boat after midnight last night. Turn on your volume and enjoy Mon.

March 28, 2010.

We went from The Bight on Cat Island and traveled 7 miles up to Fernandez Bay. We ended up going to a happy hour at the Fernandez Bay Village Club and made plans to have lunch there the next day before going on a bit of a dinghy exploration.

So much for plans. The next morning the weather forecast had turned to shit and we were due to have a nasty front come through in a few days. Screw lunch and the tour its time to hit the trail.

We raised anchors early and headed north for Half Moon Bay on Little San Salvador. It was a thirty mile trip and we were forced to motor for the first 20 miles in dead flat conditions. Normally we would have waited for a day with a favorable breeze but we had to get ourselves some westerly protection ASAP.

The Island of Little San Salvador is owned by one of the large cruise ship lines. They pull a cruise ship up and anchor it offshore and then ferry the thousand or more passengers ashore to frolic on the island. As we pulled into the anchorage we were just in time to see the Westerdam load the last of their passengers, pull the hook and leave. Cool.

Since we were crossing large stretches of deep, potentially rough water we had the dinks engine stowed on deck. Since we were only there for the night we decided to skip putting the engine on and going ashore. From the boat we could see the islands caretakers cleaning up and getting ready for the next boatload of tourons. We decided to be up and underway at 0700 so I set my alarm and tucked in after an evening of reading.

The next thing I knew Jay on Far Niente was on the VHF asking if everyone was up and ready. DAMN, the alarm didn’t go off. I stumbled through the dark boat and answered that “Yeah, the Verandas up” as everyone else checked in. I hate being late. I glanced at the weather station/ clock on the wall as I made my way to the head, 7:23, DAMN, how could we have overslept this late……..and why is it still so dark? I was confused but still freaked out when Christy said to me “Its only 06:15”. What? How? The clock on the wall said 7:23…..No she replied….the clock says 0615…the thermometer says that its 72.3 degrees in the cockpit. Shit, my eye was starting to twitch and I think I might have a cerebral aneurism but at least we’re not late.

Since we were up early we got underway. We had 15 to 20 knots straight over the stern for the first eleven miles. We had the full main up and secured with a pair of preventers. We were sailing along in 6 to 8 foot rolling seas when the fishing reel started to scream. I grabbed the rod and gradually was able slow the fish from taking line from the reel. I had the drag clamped all the way down and the line was still creeping off the reel every time the fish made another run. I’d reel in 2 feet and he’d take a few inches back out. We had visions of a huge Mahi Mahi dancing in our heads.

The fish was several hundred feet behind the boat and progress was agonizingly slow as I reeled him in a foot at a time. Because the dinghy was hanging in the davits I was unable to see the fish but Christy had a better vantage point. Finally the fish leapt from the water and Christy dejectedly said “I don’t think it’s a Mahi”. It was just so difficult to tell what it was as she stared straight back into the rising sun. Finally after just over 4 miles I was able to bring our catch alongside. It turned out to be a 6 foot Sailfish. They’re considered to be a game fish so we decided to release him. But there was no way in hell I was giving up my lure. While Christy held the rod I pulled in the last few yards of line until I could grab the fish by his beak. Once I was able to grab him I yanked him up until I could twist our hook out. He was still full of fight when we released him back into the sea. Hemingway would have been proud. I needed a nap.

Shortly after releasing the Sailfish we turned 30 degrees to starboard and unfurled the genoa. The next 15 miles may have been the finest sailing of my life. We had big wind as we sailed northwest in the lee of Eleuthera. We ranged from 7.4 to 9.4 knots as we blasted along chasing the other boats.
Savage Son outran us by a few hundred yards but we were both able to make up more than a mile as we caught up with the rest of the fleet before turning onto the banks at Powell Point. The last 12 miles of the day was a splashfest as we motor sailed into 30 knots of apparent breeze.

Downwind with big wind and a big fish….Great. Beam reach with flat water and big wind…….Perfect. Upwind into big wind……..Crap. But it was still a fantastic day.

March 27, 2010.

Okay, lets talk about Cat Island and its biggest point of interest; The Hermitage. Back around the year 1940 this priest named Father Jerome was retiring and decided to build himself a church. Father Jerome had a hand in designing and building several churches in this part of the Bahamas. There are 2 major points that set this one apart; the fact that it stands alone on top of the tallest hill in the Bahamas and the fact that he built the entire thing by himself.

When we pulled in to the anchorage the Hermitage can be seen from miles away. It looks pretty spectacular from sea level so we were excited to start the hike up the hill.

Once you reach the base of the hill the real fun begins. You start up a wooded pathway until you get to the real climbing.
The hill is very steep and Father Jerome has studded the trail with the Stations of the Cross to entice you to keep climbing. There’s a miniature Jesus
interred in his crypt with the stone rolled aside awaiting his resurrection. There’s religious slogans and symbolism everywhere cast in the rocks.

When you finally reach the summit you’re hit in the face with the most astonishing fact of all.
The place is freaking tiny. What looked so big and majestic from below is actually a miniature version of a European Franciscan monastery. The interior of the main chapel was approximately 6 by 8 feet. There was a small altar and room for only one pew which was too small to accommodate me by myself.
Don’t get me started on the doorways. Off to the side of the main building were his personal quarters. The kitchen made the galley in our boat seem roomy. He had an outdoor shower next to what I like to call the Rectory. It was a single room with an ultra tiny desk and a single wooden bed no more than 5 ½ feet long.

So now since we’ve seen the size of the accommodations I have this mental image of the good padre being about 5 feet tall and built like a bull from lugging all these stones. That image lasted until we met a local who filled us in with a physical description of Father “The Madman” Jerome. It was his recollection that the father was about 6 foot 1 and gaunt as hell. He said the tiny ass bed was just another way of Father Jerome dedicating himself to a life of hardship. I mean, poverty is fine but at the end of the day wouldn’t have been nice to stretch out a bit?


About 150 yards down a trail behind the church is the cave where Father Jerome lived until he completed the church. It was bigger than his completed Rectory but pretty damn austere, plus he had to commute.

So his church stands as he left it, cared for by the local community. The whole size thing is a little bizarre but it stands as a mute testament to one mans determination and vision.

March 25, 2010.

There was a bit of a get together on the beach last night for the dozen or so boats anchored in the lee of Conception Island. During the evening the 3 other boats we’ve been traveling with decided that we should all leave this morning at “oh dark thirty”. They were also throwing numbers out like 0730 and 0800. All I know is that I heard oh dark thirty.

So this morning I was up at 0600. I secured the generator, raised the flag, opened the sail bag, opened up the enclosure and attached the halyard. It was about then that I realized that nobody else was stirring. It was at that time that I hatched my diabolical plot. I sat quietly in the cockpit until 0630 when I knew that everyone else would be paying attention below to their SSB’s and tuning in the weather guru, Chris Parker. I figured that since they’ve been motorsailing over the horizon on us everyday, that we would get a bit of a head start today and stand a good chance of arriving about when they do.

So while their attention was elsewhere we quietly raised the mainsail and then the hook and ghosted out of the anchorage in the predawn grayness. About 40 minutes later I heard a faint call on the VHF, Veranda, you bastard…..lol. By then we were romping along at better than 6 knots and they were dots behind us in the distance. Christy went back to bed I cranked up the IPOD and enjoyed a perfect morning of sailing.

They all spent various amounts of time motorsailing and we all arrived at Cat Island within 500 yards of each other after a 42 mile day. The Savage Sons caught their first Mahi Mahi of the year on the way over. It really was a splendid day.

March 24, 2010.

Like Dick Vitale would say, its time for March Madness Baby.

Back when we lived with a television I used to love March Madness. Since we now live elsewhere where there is no television I have no idea who’s in the Final Four or is it Great Eight time, is the tournament over? I dunno. I have to admit that I don’t really miss it.

March Madness has taken on new meaning for us. Lobster season ends on March 31st so we’re trying very hard to grab a few before the season ends. Nassau Grouper just opened on March 1st so for the month of March everything we see in the water can legally be put on our plates. After months of having to ignore Nassau Grouper it’s been great to be able to whack a few.

Today, March 24th was a record breaking day. This morning we walked back across the cay with a large group to snorkel the ship wreck we swam the other day. Since we had taken that large lobster over there we once again brought our spears. I was in the water for only a few minutes when I nailed the largest Nassau Grouper of my career. He weighed in at 16 freaking pounds and 9 oz’s. I saw him and ducked behind a coral head and snuck closer.
I came over the top of the coral head and he was directly below me and headed for his hole. My spear was quicker and tonight he was dinner for several of us here in the anchorage.

After lunch Christy and I headed out to explore Southampton Reef. The reef is composed of every type of coral I’ve seen in the Bahamas. There are long clusters and individual heads scattered for miles. There are so many nooks and crannies to examine that its easy to get confused about where you’ve already been. The reef breaks the surface in a lot of places even though some of the coral sits in 25 feet of water. It’s actually difficult to navigate the dinghy through the maze of coral heads. This is the same reef that the 68 foot power yacht with the delivery captain ran aground on.

I was surprised at how few fish there were. It doesn’t seem to make any sense. Beautiful live coral with tons of structure, but very few fish or lobster. I spent 2 hours searching for lobster. I saw only 2 or 3 fish I would have considered, but this mornings grouper was plenty to last us for a few days.

Finally, I spotted a hint of an antenna down inside a coral head. I peeked into the hole and could just make out a bit of a single antenna. I found another hole to look into and was able to see even less of the second antenna. I jerked around teasing the antenna for 15 minutes in an effort to get him curious enough to see what was brushing his antenna. I couldn’t even be sure that he was big enough to warrant all this effort. Finally, I found a third entrance down near the base of the coral head that looked up through the head. From this newer vantage point I could see 2 very large legs. Eureka, El Bug Gigantico.

After giving him a few minutes to sit and ponder I went back to the original hole and stroked his antenna one more time with my spear. Curiosity killed the cat and it’s not so great for lobster either. He stepped forward just enough that I could see most of both antennas and just the tips of 2 legs.
I couldn’t stand it anymore so I slipped my arm into the hole and kinda figured where all these body parts came together and took a shot.

The spear went nuts in my hand so I knew I had nailed him a good one. When I finally worked him free of the hole I almost shit. He was massive. When we got him back to the big boat, he weighed in at 7 ½ pounds. This is the biggest lobster we’ve ever taken and on the same day we grabbed our biggest Grouper ever.

March Madness Baby!

March 22, 2010.

Hey, is that a dead horse? No, no it’s just Bill talking about the weather again.

When Christy and I first left Jersey 4 years ago the weather was one of our biggest worries. The first time we were faced with a front coming through the area we ran to a marina and hid as the winds topped 35 knots.

Now that we’ve become a little more seasoned, things are a little different. I hadn’t really realized it until just recently how much more relaxed we’ve become. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still careful as hell but now we’re a little more reasonable as well.

At the moment we’re traveling with 3 other boats that all have varying degrees of experience. The crew of boat #1 is out for their first year and I can completely identify with them as I listen to their concerns and questions about the weather and tactics. I remember having the same fears and apprehension that they’re experiencing now.

Boat #2 has been cruising for 6 months out of the year for a few years. So they have a little more comfort in dealing with bad weather in the forecast. They seem to be more interested in tactics and different possibilities when it comes to deploying their ground tackle. They seem to be past the “Show me what to do” stage and are now in the “Discuss the theory to me and I’ll do it myself” stage.

The third boat has been out a year or two longer than we have and he’s at the point where he says “We’ll throw another anchor out, we’ll bounce a little and we’ll get over it”.

So here we sit at Conception Island to the east of Long Island. The wind is brisk from the southeast while we hide along the northwest shore. The wind is supposed to clock around with light winds before settling in for about 12 hours of anywhere from 10 to 20 knots of breeze from the northwest.

The question is, do we time the front and scurry around to the southeast side as the wind starts to build from the northwest or do we drop a second hook and put up with a little discomfort until the front finally goes north. The debate had been back and forth as every possible weather forecast had been analyzed. The other side of the island was pretty rough and by the time it settled down it would be time to head back over to the west side so we’d all decided to stay put. So this morning we all spent a little bit of time dropping a second hook off to the northwest of our boats to keep us from swinging to close to the beach. We may have to endure a bit of discomfort but we’ll be safe.

This is a picture of the Aqua Doll being towed away by the salvage vessel the Amazing Grace. A few nights before we got here we heard the story unfold as to how the Aqua Doll had run up on a reef and was taking on water. A delivery captain who is now probably a former delivery captain evidently didn’t read his paper chart thoroughly enough. On the page that shows Conception Cay there’s a note that says Southampton Reef Extends another 3 miles to the north. You see the illustration shows the reef running right to the edge of the page and the note explains that the reef continues on for another 3 miles. On the chart plotter the reef appears the same way but there is no note shown on the chartplotter. So it seemed that the guy was driving by the chart plotter and not paying enough attention to what was actually going on outside the boat and ran hard aground up onto the reef.

The boat spent the night and several tide cycles up on the reef. The next day high powered pumps and divers were helicoptered in and the Amazing Grace showed up on scene. They were able to stem the flooding, pump out enough water and refloat the boat and tow it to the anchorage. They’ve been working on it for several days in an effort to stop the flooding so they could tow it away for permanent repairs. From what we’ve heard the Aqua Doll is a 68 foot Azimith which I understand is a top of the line power yacht costing in excess of a million dollars. We’ve also heard that the insurance company is forking out $20,000 a day for the salvage of the vessel.

While we were waiting for the front to get here, Christy and I decided to carry our shit across the cay and hunt the north side of the cay. There’s a ship wreck visible from the top of a nearby bluff so I thought that at the very least it make for some interesting snorkeling. We were in the water for less than a minute and I was able to spear a 4 pound Grouper. While Christy swam it back to the beach to put it into our bucket I continued on and came across a large Margate. I figured that since fish were obviously so plentiful I would pass on him and look for another Grouper, a Hogfish or a lobster. So of course, after having passed on the Margate we didn’t see another good sized fish. It was cloudy out, rain was headed our way and we decided to cut our day in the water short after one more quick swim through the ship wreck. We were swimming together on our way towards the wreck across an area we’d already searched when a massive lobster came barreling out of his hole directly in front of us. This was one of those dream opportunities. Huge bug, out in the open and apparently suicidal. Just lucky for him that the Kevorkian’s were in the vicinity. After nailing him we headed home where we weighed and cleaned our catch. He ended up weighing in at 6 pounds 9 ounces, our biggest bug of the season.

March 21, 2010.

Hey all. Let me start out my wishing myself a Happy Birthday and yes, we are starting to head north.
Since my birthday was yesterday we had a little get together on the Veranda. Dr. Bob on Savage Son wrote me a prescription for peanut M&M’s while Jay on Far Niente used the opportunity to pass along The Birthday Hat. It was a lovely gesture but I’m looking forward to the next birthday celebration we attend so I can pass it along as well.

We celebrated my birthday anchored in the lee of Rum Cay. How appropriate! The sail down there from Calabash Bay was a long slow sail dead down wind. Everyone else motored over the horizon while Christy and I were content to average just over 4 knots, wing and wing for 25 miles. The last hour of the day the wind built and we had to alter course to the east and we romped along at over 6 knots right into the anchorage.

After a rolly night at anchor we arose, did some boat chores and headed out to do a little hunting. There was mile after mile of reef but very little life about. I felt like a tourist with a spear as I checked one promising ledge after another to no avail. Finally Greg from My Destiny broke the spell by finding and nailing a 5 ½ pound lobster. Greg and Judy just crossed over from the states so this was his first lobster of the year. What a way to start off, it’s gonna be tough to top that.

After Greg broke the ice I took a 4 ½ pounder and a pair of Slipper Lobsters. I’ve seen other guys take Slipper Lobsters before but these 2 were the first of my career. They’re kind of prehistoric looking but supposedly tastier than the regular Spiney Lobsters that we’ve been harvesting. I guess we’ll see.

After hunting we ventured into town. Calling the settlement on Rum Cay a town is a little misleading. It’s more like a spread out village. You walk a bit and find a house. Walk some more and find a grocery store and then a church, etc. We ended up at the marina on Rum Cay. The guy who owns the place spends a lot of time making carvings out of the limestone and brain corals that are so prevalent in the islands. One of the local nurse sharks was scrounging for food scraps below the docks. The entrance into this marina is not for the faint of heart. The channel is a winding affair flanked by shallow coral heads. This wall was topped with a dozen destroyed propellers that didn’t make it into the marina without a coral encounter.

This morning we rose to winds of 20 knots out of the east southeast. We pulled the hooks and sailed the 21 miles northwest to Conception Cay. It was a challenging day as the wind was almost dead behind us once again. It was just off the quarter enough that wing and wing wasn’t an option. But since there was enough wind everybody decided to sail the entire way.

We covered the distance quickly and were pleased to land our first Mahi Mahi……ever. Christy and I make a pretty deadly team when it comes to spearfishing but we’re pretty much inept when the whole fishing rod thing comes into play. It’s the only hit we’ve had in as long as I can remember and Christy reeled him in while I doused the headsail and tightened up the main in an effort to slow the boat down.